Research means hitting wrong notes

June 20, 2012

Roland: Revision

"Olivant" in the original was not "Oliver" but rather "oliphant," the elephant ivory horn. I was wondering why Oliver was blowing Roland's horn!

The original has "blaumen" (blue men?) for the Moors. Okay, the religious war theme is tricky enough already without going there. I just call them Moors for the most part. I use 'heathen' a few times, hopefully understood as a descriptor and not a pejorative?

I saw in the Faroese songbook that their version has masculine rhyme, too. So nyah!

Tidied up the scansion in verse 3, corrected a few typos.

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"Six of my earls will stay at home to guard the rings of gold The other six in heathen lands are swinging their iron cold"